Thread: Pine OK for toys?

Pine should be ok indoors.
A few coats of polyurethane should be suitable.

Hi Tony,

I remembered seeing a site which explained how to make the tracks etc:
Jigs and notes for making wooden trains and tracks

That should give you heaps of ideas and advice.

He actually mentions wood types:
Wood Selection: I've used poplar for track in the past, but I much prefer using maple. The track seems to be tougher, and it machines well. Beech is apparently the wood of choice, but it's hard to find locally and is quite expensive. Whatever you choose, make sure it doesn't splinter too easily. I do use poplar for most buildings and haven't had any breakage yet.

Stephen

and once you have been to Stephen's link, go to the "sources" page on that site and download the notes from Woodcraft.

The link should be http://www2.woodcraft.com.pdf/77B36.pdf

To answer your question:
Pine'll be fine... if it hasn't warped when you build it, and you seal it, at the scale you are working it probably won't cause a problem.

I'd prefer a satin or oiled finish personally.

Makin' train tracks ain't Rocket Science, but the jigs outlined above will help!

Cheers,

P

Pine is wonderful stuff for this, easy to work, strong across the grain, and because it is all kiln dried it is very stable and will never warp (unless exposed to weather or abuse). Best of all no finish is necessary(as per the first link) so you get that pine smell in the room for years and years. OK so its not beech and if ur keen you might give it a once over with danish oil but pine is the go. Will we see a picture ?

Tony,

From my memory, somewhere, there is a router bit that wasn't too expensive ($40 range, but that bit could be wrong) and did the complete track cross section. All you had to do was run the correctly sized wood, both sides (even curved) to create the track.

Try doing a search on it - I went through my mcjing catalogue, but it wasn't in there..

Mike

Thanks for the responses: especially Stephen's link - just what I needed - a site dedicated to construction of "Brio" track and trains! Lots of detailed info there to mull over.

Now I see there are a few pre-requisites before I can really embark on this project:

• Build a router table
• Get a band saw

However, I do have a bit of time as my son is only 9 months old.
Pictures Len? Certainly, but it may take me 12 months so don't hold your breath! (My garage time is limited by parental duties)

I'll probably start building it in pine to hone my techniques and maybe switch to a "better" wood such as maple (would the Aussie versions of maple be equivalent to the (presambly) American maple mentioned in the article?)

Tony I think the only local timber which is actual north american maple is the tree which we call 'liquid amber' (I may be corrected on this). The salvage guys get it sometimes and you might be able to put an order in for a bit to be cut to your train track size+5mm then dried. If you start now it will be ready to mill about the time you have perfected your system using pine. Or what about doing it in black heart sassafrass ? or pink myrtle ?